Michael Doyle will urge his Coventry City team-mates to stay calm and try to avoid the adrenaline rush in the opening ten minutes of Saturday’s big League Two opener against Notts County.

The Sky Blues skipper knows from experience that kick-off for the first match of the season is always an intense affair with new-found enthusiasm from an expectant home crowd adding to the atmosphere and making it an occasion.

But Doyle, who led Portsmouth to the League Two title in May, warned: “There’s a lot of adrenaline, getting to play in the stadium again in front of a good crowd that will hopefully turn up.

“Everything is built into that one game and the first ten minutes you have to control and contain yourself a bit because if you don’t then more than likely you are blowing out of your backside.

“I genuinely don’t think we can be any fitter than we are because the work we have done on the training ground has been pretty intense and we have been pushed all the way. So we’re ready to go.

“But the one thing about it is this match isn’t going to be the be all and end all of our season.

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“Obviously we want to get a result on the board as quickly as possible but we don’t want to put too much on this one match because if you’re going to get promoted you do it over the course of 46 games.

“It’s going to be a long, hard season and I think sometimes as players, especially when you’re a bit younger, you can get too sucked in to playing that first game.”

Barnsley v Coventry City at Oakwell Park, in a pre season friendly, with, Michael Doyle

Doyle insists City are ready.

“We’ve had a really tough pre-season with some tough games but I don’t think we can be any more ready,” he said.

“It will be a big test for us against Notts County who I played against last year and will be a big and physical side who will come and have a go at us so we have to be ready.

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“But we have got a lot of experience in the dressing room now and we’re looking forward to the first game, that’s the big one and one we have all been waiting for since the first day of pre-season – Notts County at home at the Ricoh Arena.